THE PRESIDENT DEPARTS – AT 12:36 P.M. ET:  President Trump is returning to the United States after his first presidential trip abroad.   He is properly ending his trip by addressing American troops.  From Fox: 

President Trump on Saturday in Italy thanked overseas U.S. troops, in concluding his trip through the Middle East and Europe in which NATO, radical Islamic terrorism and climate change emerged at key issues.

“I think we hit a homerun no matter where we went,” said at Naval Air Station Sigonella, in Sicily. “And now we’re getting on that very big plane and heading back to Washington. I can think of no better way to conclude our first foreign trip than to spend time with you. … We will always support you. And we will never, ever forget you.”

Trump also said he leaves amid new hope among nations on “eradicating the terrorism that plagues humanity.”

Earlier in the day, Trump declined to join six other world powers Italy in affirming the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

COMMENT:  The Mideast leg of the trip went spectacularly well.  And American negotiators have now returned to the Mideast to continue the work the president started.

In Europe Mr. Trump clearly ran into trouble.  Europeans despise him and still love Obama, even though Obama showed major disrespect for them.  He was just, ah, so trendy, so with it, so great for conversations on the cocktail circuit, so properly contemptuous of ordinary people.  What a guy! 

If anything, Trump's visit showed that Western Europe is growing in insignificance.  Many of its countries can't even reproduce their populations.  They will essentially fade away.  Many have come down with the socialist disease.  Their citizens live their lives "expecting" something from their government.  The thinking of Europe, to the extent that it exists, does not much influence us any longer.   

And 68 years after the founding of NATO, the alliance's commanding general is still an American.  They still depend on us, while sneering at us.

The Mideast leg was far more important.  The Europeans can be handled, as they dream of Elizabeth Warren as president.  Dream on.

May 27,  2017